Bangkok

Bangkok impressed us a lot!

On the arrival day, we visited Wat Pho with the reclining Buddha. Since we arrived shortly before closing time, there were not many people. In the evening, we walked along Khao San Road and its side streets and treated ourselves to a foot massage!

The next day, our temple tour continued with the Grand Palace. Philip had to buy a nice pair of long pants for this occasion ;-) Inside the temple, you can see the admittedly very small and inconspicuous-looking Emerald Buddha, which is actually made of jade but looks like an emerald. Taking direct photos of it is not allowed.

Afterwards, we took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun, a temple with impressively high towers covered in small ceramic tiles.

After a much-needed lunch, we took a tuk-tuk and raced to the Golden Mount. There, we climbed 344 steps to enjoy a view of the city. At the top, there is a golden bell-shaped tower where you can leave donations or flowers.

In the evening, we went to Chinatown, which looks really authentic (at least how we imagine China) and is already decorated for the New Year's festival on January 22nd. We ate our way through the street stalls, but we didn't dare to try the fried scorpions and insects ;-)

On our last day in Bangkok, we took it easy with a small tour of Lumphini Park, where we could watch monitor lizards swimming and sunbathing. Afterwards, we plunged into the giant shopping malls in Siam! By the way, there are robotic vacuum cleaners driving around there. Everything is a bit more modern and bigger than in Saarparkcenter ;-) 

After successfully visiting the Apple Store and Starbucks in style, we went to a rooftop bar on the 28th floor of the Hyatt Hotel in the evening. In the last 5 minutes of happy hour, we managed to get cocktails and were impressed by the city lights.

The next day, after checking out, we took the metro to Hua Lamphong Station. Now, for only 30 baht (less than 1€), you can take the train to Ayutthaya, which is about 2 hours away.